Become An Actor to Become Successful

It was in one of the training sessions on Achieving Excellence through Self De­velopment that the Trainer or probably a better word for him would be, motivational coach said that the best way to become suc­cessful in life and especially in professional life is to become an ‘ACTOR’!

Each of the participants seated in that semi­nar was not just surprised but almost aghast at what the motivational coach had just said. “Is he serious?”

Is this guy telling us that the way to become a successful professional is by becoming an actor?”

Although we were looking shocked and a bit confused at what he had said the motiva­tional coach was smiling wide.

He looked at all of us and then started ad­dressing us.

“Dear participants, I can competely under­stand that you are surprised at what I just said about being an actor.

However, this ACTOR is not what you think it is.

I am not suggesting that you learn the skills of acting and eventually start acting in movies. The term actor is actually an acronym and therefore each alphabet of this term represents a very pertinent and power­ful quality which can catapult us towards professional success!

Do you want to know what the ACTOR stands for?”

He asked and we excitedly said yes.

He stood up from his chair and began explaining.

“Dear participants, in order to become highly successful in your organisation and rise higher in your career the first thing you must do is awaken the A of the actor and the alphabet A represents your Attitude!

Remember always that, ‘it is not your apti­tude but your attitude that determines your altitude’

I therefore believe that to become suc­cessful in your professional career apart from developing a positive attitude towards life you must, more importantly, begin to develop three significant aspects of your positive attitude and these are:

Assertive attitude:

Adaptable attitude and Aspirational at­titude. Let me explain each one in greater detail.

Assertive attitude:

It is about becoming not just positive but becoming extremely self-confident, coura­geous and most importantly inculcating the attitude of being ‘Self-driven to take INITIA­TIVES fearlessly.

Assertiveness is all about asserting your­self in situations where tough decisions need to be taken or in certain situations where we must deal with failure or face tough challenges.

Adaptable attitude:

If you want to succeed and that too at a faster pace than your colleagues then you must become ‘ADAPTABLE TO CHANGE’.

Change is part of life and even in organisa­tions there will always be changes that will keep happening and although these changes will always be with positive intentions you may find it hard to adjust to them.

There will be many who will resist the change and start complaining about it.

However only those who will understand the purpose or reason behind the change and the future positive results of it will grow in the organisation.

Remember, even a caterpillar undergoes a change or transformation and it goes through this process with the aim to fly from its cocoon as a vibrant ‘butterfly’.

The transformation for the caterpillar or for you could be painful but if you adapt to the change and endure the difficulties you will eventually achieve true success!

Aspirational attitude:

What is the meaning of the word ‘aspira­tional’?

Well, it simply means to have an extremely strong ‘desire and passion’ to aspire or ac­complish your goals and dreams.

Those people without the aspirations or dreams or even ambitions will end up being where they are for the rest of their lives.

Remember you must have aspirations and ‘growth’.

They are directly proportional to each other and hence if you want to grow in your life professionally as well as personally then I want you create your aspirations first in your minds and then I want you all to them down on a piece of paper.

I want you to also create ‘time durations’ such as short term, medium term and long term for each of your aspeirations.

The moment you set your aspirations or goals you will feel a sense of excitement and self-motivation to work hard on accomplish­ing your goals or aspirations.

Have you ever seen the game of football being played without the goal-posts? You haven’t right?

In the same way we should not live our life without setting our aspirations or goals!”

Saying all this he stopped to sip some water and then continued.

“Dear participants, I hope you have understood the importance of attitude and especially the three aspects of it.

Before, I explain to you about the other alphabets of the ACTOR I want you to, right now, write your aspirations”

Saying this he relaxed on the chair and waited for us to complete the task of writing our aspirations.

I can say for sure we had learnt something very interesting and useful and there was more to come.

In my next column I will share with you about the other alphabets of the ACTOR!

Feedback: maraia.vula@fijisun.com.fj